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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1981)
Cell Talk by Asmar Abdul SetfuUah aka Joe West »40404 Governor Vic Atiyeh visits St. Vincent de Paul Rehabilitation Cen ter with Doug White, president of the Union Avenue Business Boos ters. For the Governor s response to his visit to Albina this week see next w eek’s Observer. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) by Nabeeh Mustqfa »43299 Maybe I could have title d this synopsis "Growing up in The Ghet to,” and you would have more read ily recognized that the subject to be dealt with concerned Black life — growing up in the Black neighbor hood, typically the slums. But Port land, Oregon, has no ghetto or slums that Blacks have traditionally been confined to (at least not physically), and th a t’ s one o f the virtues that makes Portland, OR, Number One in livability in the na tion (they say), conferring great rec ognition on Oregon's largest and one o f its few cities. The so-called "c o r rectional systems” o f Oregon and Washington also share the dubious d istin ction o f having the greatest number o f minorities incarcerated per capita o f any states in the na tion. They have traditionally buried Blacks, Chicanos and Indians deep er here in this Northwest corner than the three ruffians in mystic lore buried Hiram A b \ff—and that was deep. What was it like growing up here? Over all, it really wasn’ t too bad u ntil I started to have contact with the law enforcement authori ties at the age o f eleven. This was two years before my mother had the last o f eight children; mostly w ith out the aid o f a man in the home. I always thought my mother was a ra ther attractive brown-skinned Black woman, and heard men make com ments to that effect during my child- hood, so I really thought that she must have been loo smart or strong- willed to submit to any o f the men who tried to "ca tch ” her. Looking back. I ’ m not so sure. According to Ebony magazine, fifty-one per cent o f the homes in the Black neighbor hood are headed by women. I know that in the first stages o f my adoles- cense, I was very shy, particularly around girls and women, and I'm sure that it was due to the lack o f a strong male image to pattern myself upon in the home. Yes, I had grown uncles and cousins, but the tra d i tional Black extended fam ily has nearly died as a reality in the Bilali- an community. One o f the ways that youth like me compensated for the lack o f family direction was to be come part o f gangs or cliques. I hung around with a notorious group o f ghetto boys who called them selves "T h e C ousins." I think i t ’ s normal for young adolescent boys to engage in the so-called "m acho” behavior to "p ro v e " manhood, but the ghetto youth from a one-parent home and living below the poverty level takes "m acho” a step further. He sees the m iddle and upper- middle-class white boys and girls on T.V. shows and commercials eating wha, they want when they want, while he’ s having hunger pains. He sees them riding their bicycles and go-carts and has enough sense to realize that his fam ily's likely re sponse to a request for a non-essen tial item can only be negative based on simple economics. But the streets and street life o ffe r a solution, where the rules o f the game are not set by the society o f your parents. Street life beckons early to youth in the A lb in a neighborhood, as in most all Bilalian (Black) neighbor hoods and ghettoes. Commingling with others o f your male and female peers at parties and neighborhood "hang-outs,” any atmosphere not controlled by parents or societal au thorities, you discover a common perception o f non-acceptance o f so cietal lim its—not morals, but limits —a rb itra rily imposed on someone who had no say-so or stake in the status quo. This type thinking is not contradicted by any acceptable con- cep^ or ideas imparted at school. Yes, they say that George could not tell a lie; he chopped down the cherry tree, but we know that George and his brother had slaves. They say,"Freedom , Justice, and E quality,” but we know it doesn’ t include us. So our standards are re lated to results, however attained. Though it might entail censure and even worse, life is a gamble anyway, so we accept it. We obtain our man hood. our human worth in spite o f the limits, or we go to ja il, juvenile homes, or the graveyard, in some cases. At that age many o f us didn’t think death could overtake us. We took our bicycles; we obtained grown-up status by stealing cars, drinking alcohol and smoking cigar- attes. Images that we wrongly a t tached to adulthood and maturity. Our juvenile and young adult incar cerations, for truancy, theft, disor derly conduct, or curfew violations, contrary to abating our errant beha vior, these lock-ups served to broad en our repertoire o f mischief and crime. I challenge anyone to assert that as far as juveniles are con cerned this situation has changed to the present time. It wasn’t a big step for me in pro gressing from this type o f selfish be havior to the view that I and all my people had been done an unpardon able injustice and that a blow struck against the enemy in any fashion was oniy payback fo r the wrong committed against my people. This society even boasted about what they had done to my people and the Indians and other minorities. Now in my mind, I could justify whatever I did as long as it was directed against members o f the m a jo rity community, particularly the busi ness com m unity. I am just now growing out o f this type of thinking, largely as a result o f my religious be liefs, and a concurrent growth in so cial consciousness, largely through my own efforts. The youth today could benefit from ethical and mor al teachings, taught in a way they can relate to, as opposed to the highly allegorical and "fa iry tale" manner in which it is presently taught by the church. The educa tional system doesn’ t teach morals or ethics in any way.. Speaking o f Schools (Continued from page 1 column 6) can ask yourself, why aren’ t those people involved? They are generally not involved because fo r the most par, they really have some distrust for the system and when they come some o f them, who by virtu re o f their lack o f having dealt with this impossible bureaucracy that we have structured in Am erica, are somehow overwhelmed by legal pro cess and parliamentary procedures. . . . I f you really talk about racial fairness there are many people who have form ed the impression that once you begin to talk about people from m inority groups you begin to talk about people who are from low socio-economic classes and some how that translated in to talkin g about m in o rity people and that is not at all tru e ... We will find just as many people in m in o rity groups who are capable o f perform ing as "gifted and talented” as anyone else ___I think I have an obligation to see that the excellence that is in the Black com m unity, the excellence that is in Southeast Asians and otners, that the potentiality for full development o f these p a rticu la r youngsters, across the board, is given proper attention. I feel that racial balance plays no role in assuring quality education, but when you define education you need to elaborate on that. I think education is the to ta lity o f efforts made both in the cognitive and the affective domain. I don’ t think it makes any difference whatsoever if you state you want your kid to learn to read, w rite, speak, listen, to reason. Those five things can take place in any environment whether it is all Black, all white, all Vietnam ese, all anything, or any mixture o f 99 to 1. But to me education consists more o f things than sim ply basic cognitive skills. I f a person, in my opinion, is fully educated there has to be an affective component to his education which to me necessitates an experience o f dealing with and knowing that other people are out there. We as a school system have to make some decisions as to when is it more appropriate that the students o f the district be exposed to the fact that there are other kinds o f people with whom we may agree, disagree, like, dislike, appreciate or not ap preciate. It is my opinion that that should occur as early in life as possi ble. . I think the citizens o f this district need to come to grips with the basic policy issue. I don’t think you really ever have. When you talk about ed ucation. are you talking about the cognitive skills? I f that is what you are talking about there is no need for any desegregation. If, in fact, you're talking about exposing young people to the reali ties o f lif e . .. I would question how you’ re going to do that. Student achievement: Research has shown that the five factors that most affect achievement in schools are: The building principals—if you do not have a person there who has the confidence o f the community, the students, or the teachers, and some idea o f the learning process, you’ re going to get nowhere. In each building there should be a very clearly defined, delineated set o f ob jectives that are very easily ex plained to parents and that parents need to understand. You need ways to measure this. You need effective teachers— and this is, beyond a doubt, the most im p o rta n t. They are the most im p o rta nt cog in the link o f educational effectiveness. Parental interest, parental involve ment, participation in the process. .. .Y ou ’ ve got to believe that every student can le a rn .. . . A lot o f us don’ t believe that, you know, when you really check out our values. Educating ethnic children: First you’ ve got to determine where you stand on the issue. I f you feel educa tion is cognitive only, no problem. You go about their education doing a needs assessment to find out where they are, find out individual needs, get an appropriate staff, get them properly qualified and certified, and you carry it out. I f you feel, how ever, that the needs are beyond the cognitive and you want to get into the affective domain that calls on a different set o f dimensions. So the first thing, I ’ ll say, is for the Port land Board o f Education and the Superintendent o f Schools to de clare a position as to what they con sider education to be. And if they do define it. to say this is how we in tend to do it. Fiscal accountability: The Board o f Education has to sit down and ask itself what are the principle pri orities we are going to address this year. And this p a rticu la r budget plan ought not to be a one year plan. I think a budget plan, very minimally, ought to be a three-year budget plan. You ask yourself, that whatever we do to spend a single dollar in this school system shows that the expen diture o f that dollar relates to a goal that the board has set for itself. You do not plan in isolation. Curriculum and program evalua tion: There need to be meaningful program guides in the school system to cover all the m ajor program areas: math, English, language, art. science, social studies, music, physi cal education, health, plus now, sex education. There also need to be proper instruments for evaluation. Two kinds o f tests should be given: One to evaluate how the sys tem is doing with respect to attain ing those goals it establishes for it self. The system also should mea sure itself on the basis o f some na tionally known test. Personnel: One should attempt to have present in a given school sys tem representation o f people from across the national structure, or cer tainly the community structure. You do need people who are positive peer examples. . . . The selection o f teachers should be given great care that it be ade quately representative o f popula tions— Evaluation o f the teacher ought to consist minimally o f five compo nents: self-evaluation, peer evalua tion, supervisor evaluation, student evaluation and parent evalua- tio n .. . . dering what’ s going to happen to that kind. There will be total confi The reason for an evaluation sys morrow, next week. Any school sys d e n tia lity. And we have brought tem is to improve performance. It tem has to do its best to say here is a about a marked improvement. should be done in a highly construc five-year plan, here's precisely what Dropout needs to be handled be tive way and every o p p o rtu n ity will happen. fore it happens. It is very difficult to ought to be given. You use it to try to Suspensions, expulsions, drop try to get kids back in once they arc prescribe a certain set o f behavior or outs: In all districts m in o rity stu out. standards or goals that that in d i It can be dealt with through alter vidual is going to aspire to over a dents are suspended at higher rates. native programs. It can be dealt with We have attempted to deal with the certain period o f time and grow in issue by utilizing the services o f the through the development o f com that process.. . . prehensive guidance and counselling 1 think parents can be involved in U niversity o f M ichigan Equal programs; you deal with trying to re cru itin g, in giving advice and O pportunity Program with a staff get away from the desk and talking o f attorneys to help us go into our o pinio n . The superintendent o f to parents and going to the people schools must hold the principal re buildings and work with (hat issue. o f the system who really know Why do some students get sus sponsible. The principal has got to what's going on. Just ge, yourself listen to parents, bu, the principal pended fo r something that other out there and learn by talkin g to must be the person making that de students do not. Why do some people. teachers perceive some kids d iffe r cision. Parent involvem ent: There is ently than others?... nothing citizens should not be in One o f the things I will never do in Planning: Planning should in volved in. This is your school dis any process... is to embarrass a staff volve program improvement, fiscal trict. integrity and survivial, equal educa member or have them be fearful o f Next week: Dr. James P. Skam- tion opportunities; s ta ff develop the kind o f treatment they’ ll get when the participate in a process o f mon and Dr. Manford Byrd. ment, general management. . . . Planning is the cornerstone on which you can really see where you arc going. One o f the problems I see here is that people seem to be won- PORTLAND CLEANING WORKS Dry Cleaner Fall rain brings drain problem Alteration* and repair extra charge • Minor repair No charge Drainage problems around the home can be greatly aggravated by the arrival o f fall rains, especially in western Oregon. "M o st landscape drainage prob lems can be solved through the use o f small diversion ditches or subsur face drains,” says Ray McNeilan, Oregon State University Extension home gardening agent. Subsurface drains at least four inches in diameter and surrounded with six to 12 inches o f gravel can be placed along the outside o f house foundations to divert water that may accumulate there. Small diversion ditches will chan nel excess surface water o ff the lawn or driveway. Yards should be graded so surface water drains away from the house. A minimum grade o f one foot in 100 feet is usually su ffic ie n t, said McNeilan. The installation o f downspouts to control roof water will help prevent water from ponding in low areas of the yard. Downspouts can empty into subsurface drains or drywells that will carry the water away from the house. Some homesites may have dense layers o f clay soil that restrict the flow o f water and create puddles or ponds. I f this dense layer is near the soil surface, a small trench can be dug through the layer and filled with sand, gravel or other coarse material. This will improve drainage in low-lying wet spots. In large poorly drained areas, construction o f subsurface drains four to six inches in diameter at a depth of two to five feet may be ne cessary. Hack the drain trench with 6 to 12 inches o f gravel, nd if possi ble use sand gravel to b a ckfill the irench to w ith in a foot o f the ground surface. Heavy foot tra ffic during rainy periods w ill compact even well- drained soil, says McNeilan. L im iting foot traffic in a wet yard helps prevent soil compaction and poor drainage. Drainage problems in the garden can also be improved with the use of small diversionary ditches. I f the problem is sever, drainage tile may be needed. Two ways to avoid con struction o f garden drainage systems is either to move the garden site or plant on raised beds. 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